Helping you learn and grow in your higher ed career

After introducing Tony Dunn’s keynote this past Monday at the HighEdWeb WEST conference in Orange, CA to a great group of higher ed professionals, I’m very pleased to announce that Higher Ed Experts is going to help another conference, eduWeb, bring to you a great speaker in Boston this July.

And, you know why you should really care about the news?

— because YOU have a chance to win a free conference pass to attend eduWeb (a $650 value), as Shelley Wetzel, the conference director, has accepted my request for a free pass to be drawn among you, my dear readers :-)

You will be able to attend the whole conference (you have to pay for your travel and lodging expenses though) – and you will have a seat at our reserved table (in the front) during this keynote.

Blame the MOOCs, the economy or tuition rise, but the future looks uncertain.

This is why Jeff Selingo’s talk is so important for higher ed web, marketing and communication professionals.
This is why Higher Ed Experts has decided to sponsor this keynote.

So, how can you win the FREE eduWeb Conference pass?

Super simple.

Just post below a short comment to tell us why you want to attend the eduWeb conference next month in Boston (originality is welcome, but not required as the winner will be randomly drawned among entries :-).

You have until Tuesday, June 11, 2013 (end of the day) to post your comment, but do it now before you forget.

I’ll announce the name of the winner in my newsletter next Wednesday, at the top of this post and will email him/her as well (so make sure you include your email address when you post your entry).

We’ve many new positions in our office reflecting the need to address the vast changes in higher ed and the Web and the unrelenting speed of technological advances challenging us each and every day, so it’s critical to be able to mix and mingle with and listen to colleagues in the field for their insight and war stories in coping with it all! At the same time, budgets don’t allow for travel as they used to. So a “free pass” to eduWeb would be wonderful!

I have been lobbying to attend eduWeb for several years, but tight budgets have made it difficult. So I’ve settled for participating online, which has been helpful but obviously not as good as being there.

Greetings, I just began a new position at IIT Stuart School of Business in Chicago, and I’ve been tasked with overhauling our website content and structure. Attending this conference would be a great opportunity!

We have a number of distinct colleges/schools within our university (some on difference CMS platforms) which can cause difficulty keeping consistency in our branding…especially with each college wanting to promote their individual strengths (and rightfully so!). I would love the chance to learn from top professionals in the higher ed web industry and exchange ideas, attend the great list of sessions and see if anyone else has similar issues.

Working in a small shop at the school level rather than the university level, it’s easy to lose sight of the larger higher ed landscape — as it exists now and as it’s shaping up for the next five or 10 years. Conferences like eduWeb pull me out of my shell, give me an opportunity to breathe deeply, and encourage me to think more broadly and contextually. Here’s a haiku to sum it up:

Can’t see the forest
for the trees. Perspective scarce.
Answer: eduWeb.

I would love the opportunity to hear from today’s higher ed thought leaders and to connect with peers about how to implement new online strategies. Conferences are a great way to recharge and help generate new ideas and enthusiasm for our work, and eduWeb looks like one of the best!

Attending this conference would be an incredible opportunity. Budgets are tight, so it hasn’t been an option in recent years. With a website redesign on the horizon, and numerous other marketing and communication projects, eduWeb would be a fantastic conference to stay current on the latest in higher education. Thank you!

My story: After wondering what to do with my life for the past few years, and discovering the possibilities in the higher ed web field, I’m diving in head-first (a decision made partly through what I’ve learned and the folks I’ve met through Higher Ed Experts!) I’m starting a new job a week from Monday. So I don’t want to ask for my new employer to cough up money for a conference until I prove to them that I am awesome… wish me luck! Thanks!

Having recently (past 6 months) taken responsibility for the majority of our social media content, I know that there is an infinite amount of information that I can take away from the EduWeb Conference and improve our university’s social media presence!

Plus, budget constraints only allow us to send one attendee to EduWeb this year, and everyone wants to go!

Attending eduWeb would provide me a wonderful opportunity to learn from the best in regards to the unique postion of dealing with the web in a highered environment. We all know that web development is fun and exciting, but it is a different beast when dealt with in a University environment. I always love to learn from experts in this field.

Thanks for the chance to win entry to the eduWeb conference! HighEdWeb is the only other conference I’ve been to that directly relates to my job.

I manage the web site for the distance learning arm of a public university. I started here in the middle of a major branding initiative for the DL department. About a year later, I was given the dept’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to manage as well.

I’ve been working on higher ed websites for 15 years and due to budget constraints I’ve never been able to attend eduWeb. We’re in the midst of a website redesign and in addition to being part of that team, I am the project lead for the complete overhaul of the online calendar component. The insights gained and information-sharing and networking opportunities attending eduWeb would give me would be priceless!

I have never been to eduWeb, but have wanted to for the last 6 years. Unfortunately, budget cuts have always prevented it. I am probably repeating everything that everyone else has already stated, but I would learn lots and be able to network with all of these outstanding web/communications/marketing folks.

This would be a great opportunity to learn, gain new perspectives and network with others working with the Web in Higher Ed. The schedule at the conference has many sessions and keynote speakers that appear interesting and relevant to our university and my team.

Although I haven’t read the book, we all know this time is a information-technology renaissance and technology will continue to disrupt. Redbox and Netflix brought down powerhouse Blockbuster within a few short years changing the movie rental business model forever. Cloud computing is another disruptor with Dropbox, Evernote, and other companies and we will see this play in corporate/higher-ed technology infrastructures within the next couple of years returning us back to dumb-terminals as well. Higher Ed can be immune to some market forces and disruptions but the MOOC model has a real chance of flipping education on is head and if I was in higher education administration I would be trying to take advantage of it not trying to prevent it. With regard to the conference, it’s always good to fellowship and learn with colleagues within the industry and I would love to attend. Recently I spoke at and attend HighedWeb-Florida (http://fl.highedweb.org/from-order-takers-to-web-custodians-within-2-years/) and would love to attend another. Cheers! bennyjones.name

I’m not going to lie….I want to have a beer at a Boston Irish pub with Jeff. That’s where the true learning is done. Over a Guinness, in a pub. More problems have been solved, more learning accomplished over a Guinness than have been at all the web conferences combined.

We’ve had a new website locked and loaded for more than a year, thriving social media, and exciting advances in our online advertising—but there’s no rest for the wicked! It’s time to revisit our strategic marketing plan for our online presence and get inspired to do more of what matters. Would love to meet fellow higher ed marketing professionals, share my knowledge of web analytics and social media marketing, and learn new best practices, tools, and technology at the eduWeb Conference.

Thank you for the opportunity for a pass to eduWeb! I am a one-person web manager, working with a phenomenal contract web developer and a small budget. Being able to attend a conference is rare. Attending eduWeb could make my year!